The surrender of Imperial Japan was announced by Japanese Emperor Hirohito on August 15 and formally signed on September 2, 1945, bringing the hostilities of World War II to a close.

Interestingly, on the official document, Canada signed in the wrong place, forcing every subsequent country to have to manually re-write their country. If you look closely you may notice that the “Dominion of the Netherlands Representative” made a typo, writing “Representive” instead.

 

 

 

 

A two-month collaboration between Joseph’s Machines and chain-reaction artist Lyle Broughton, resulted in this awesome social distancing Rube Golderg machine for safely passing the pepper.

The machine is bursting with creativity and one tense moment with a macbook!

 

 

If you've ever been afflicted with writer's block, you'll know it's no laughing matter — it can impede your writing for days, weeks, or even months. And while it's tempting to just ignore the problem and hope that it goes away, writer's block is one of those pests that requires active extermination.

That's why we've put together this post all about how to overcome writer's block, complete with info on what actually causes this conundrum, as well as what you can do to avoid it! Feel free to start with the video below for a quick primer, then move onto our detailed written tips.

What is writer’s block?

Writer’s block is the state of being unable to proceed with writing, and/or the inability to start writing something new. Some believe it's a genuine disorder, while others believe it's “all in your head.” Regardless, we can all agree writer's block is a painful condition that's often difficult to overcome.

What causes writer's block, you may ask? Well, in the 1970s, clinical psychologists Jerome Singer and Michael Barrios decided to find out. After following a group of “blocked writers” for several months, they concluded that there are four broad causes of writer's block:

1. Excessively harsh self-criticism
2. Fear of comparison to other writers
3. Lack of external motivation, like attention and praise
4. Lack of internal motivation, like the desire to tell one's story

In other words, writer's block stems from various feelings of discontent with the creative act of writing. But these feelings are by no means irreversible! After all, every writer begins with a sense of purpose and excitement; beating writer's block is about getting those feelings back. Let's jump into our tips to see how you can accomplish that.

How to overcome writer's block: 20 tips

1. Develop a writing routine

Author and artist Twyla Tharp once wrote: “Creativity is a habit, and the best creativity is a result of good work habits.” This might seem counterintuitive to some. Isn't creativity something that naturally ebbs and flows, not something you can schedule?

But the truth is, if you only write when you “feel creative,” you're bound to get stuck in a tar pit of writer's block. The only way to push through is by disciplining yourself to write on a regular schedule. It might be every day, every other day, or just on weekends — but whatever it is, stick to it!

Want to establish a regular writing habit, but not sure how? Check out this course on the subject, or watch this Reedsy Live from writing coach Kevin Johns, which shows how to create "non-negotiable writing time."

2. Use "imperfect" words

A writer can spend hours looking for the perfect word or phrase to illustrate a concept. You can avoid this fruitless (and block-engendering) endeavor by putting, “In other words…” and simply writing what you’re thinking, whether it’s eloquent or not. You can then come back and refine it later by doing a CTRL+F search for “in other words.”

3. Do non-writing activities

Children’s book editor Maria Tunney finds that one of the best ways to climb out of a writing funk is to take yourself out of your own work and into someone else’s:

“Go to an exhibition, to the cinema, to a play, a gig, eat a delicious meal ... immerse yourself in great STUFF and get your synapses crackling in a different way. Snippets of conversations, sounds, colors, sensations will creep into the space that once felt empty. Perhaps, then, you can return to your own desk with a new spark of intention.”

4. Freewrite through it

Freewriting involves writing for a pre-set amount of time without pause — and without regard for grammar, spelling, or topic. You just write.

Of course, what you jot down may be completely irrelevant to your current project, but that doesn't matter! The goal of freewriting is to write without second-guessing yourself — free from doubt, apathy, or self-consciousness, all of which contribute to writer's block. Here's how to get started:

• Find the right surroundings. Go somewhere you won't be disturbed.
• Pick your writing utensils. Will you type at your computer, or write with pen and paper? (Tip: if you're prone to hitting the backspace button, you should freewrite the old-fashioned way!)
• Settle on a time-limit. Your first time around, set your timer for just 10 minutes to get the feel for it. You can gradually increase this interval as you grow more comfortable with freewriting.

5. Relax on your first draft

Many writers suffer form perfectionism, which is especially debilitating during a first draft. As editor Lauren Hughes says:

“Blocks often occur because writers put a lot of pressure on themselves to sound ‘right’ the first time. A good way to loosen up and have fun again in a draft is to give yourself permission to write imperfectly.”

Remember that “perfect is the enemy of good,” so don't agonize about getting it exactly right! You can always go back and edit, maybe even get a second pair of eyes on the manuscript. But for this first time around, just putting the words on the page is enough.

6. Don’t start at the beginning

By far the most intimidating part of writing is the start, when you have a whole empty book to fill with coherent words. (Seriously, just talking about it makes us break out in a cold sweat.)

So instead of starting with the chronological beginning of whatever it is you’re trying to write, dive into middle, or wherever you feel confident. You’ll feel less pressure to get everything “right” straight away because you’re “already at the halfway point” — and by the time you return to the beginning, you'll be all warmed up!

7. Take a shower

This isn’t a personal hygiene suggestion. Have you ever noticed that the best ideas tend to arrive while in the shower, or while doing other “mindless” tasks?

Well, there’s a scientific reason for this: research shows that when you’re doing something monotonous (such as showering, walking, or cleaning), your brain goes on autopilot, leaving your unconscious free to wander without logic-driven restrictions. In other words, you’re more able to daydream and make creative connections that you might otherwise miss. Just lather, rinse, and repeat until you’ve kicked that block to the curb!

8. Balance your inner critic

Ah, the inner critic! Always there to bring your writing to a screeching halt with a big dose of self-doubt. Stephen King, Margaret Atwood, and Charles Bukowski all struggled with it — indeed, you’d be hard-pressed to find a writer who hasn’t been blocked by their inner critic.

What successful writers have in common is the ability to hear their inner critic, respectfully acknowledge its points, and move forward. You don't need to completely ignore that critical voice, nor should you cower before it. Rather, you must establish a respectful, balanced relationship, so you can address what's necessary and skip over what's insecure and irrelevant.

If you want to know more, the Harvard Business Review has some great tips on how to make peace with your inner critic!

9. Switch up your tool

As you may already know, a change of scenery can really help with writer's block. However, that scenery doesn't have to be your physical location — changing up your writing tool can be just as big a help!

For example, if you’ve been typing on your word processor of choice, try switching to pen and paper. Or if you're just sick of Google Docs, consider using specialized writing software. (Personally, we'd recommend the Reedsy Book Editor!) Even the smallest shift can make a huge difference to your productivity.

10. Change your POV

More great advice from editor Lauren Hughes: “When blocked, try to see your story from another perspective ‘in the room’ to help yourself move beyond the block. How might a minor character narrate the scene if they were witnessing it? A ‘fly on the wall’ or another inanimate object?

“Temporarily changing your perspective can give ‘new eyes’ and help you more clearly see the areas you could improve in the scene, and how to proceed from there.”

If you're like to see point of view in action, here's an in-depth look at what POV is and various examples of it.

11. Exercise your creative muscles

Any skill requires practice if you want to improve, and writing is no different! So if you’re feeling stuck, perhaps it’s time for a strengthening scribble-session to bolster your abilities. Check out these lists of creative writing prompts, writing exercises or writing strategies to get started.

12. Map out your story

If your story has stopped chugging along, help it pick up steam by taking a more structured approach — specifically, by writing an outline. Figuring out your story's trajectory will not only solve your current block, but also prevent more blocks in the future!

As author Tom Evans says in this interview, “What happens [when you start outlining] is that the information that you need to write that following chapter has an uncanny way of just showing up. There are a few reasons for that, but basically your brain tunes in to what you need to write... and the chapter just flows.”

Sounds pretty great, right? So even if you've always eschewed outlining, give it a try; it might be just the thing to cure your writer's block.

13. Write something else

Though it's important to try and push through writer's block with what you're actually working on, sometimes it's simply impossible. If you've been banging your head against your story for ages, feel free to push your current piece to the side for now and write something new.

This will both a) maintain your writing routine and b) allow your thoughts to subconsciously simmer. That way, even if you're not actually writing what you should be writing, you can still make some conceptual progress — and come back to it with new ideas to try.

Not sure what else to write about? Check out some of these short story ideas, or this amazing new plot generator! (Warning: highly addictive.)

14. Work on your characters

At their core, most stories are really about characters. It follows that if your characters are not clearly defined, you’re more likely to run into writer’s block. But if this sounds like you, don't despair! Here are some great resources for getting your characters up to code:

• Character development exercises — these will help you flesh out your characters into three-dimensional people with strengths, weaknesses, ambitions, fears, and more.
• Character profile — this post walks you through how to create a detailed character profile. It also comes with a handy template you can use to really get to know your cast!
• Character motivations — motivations are a crucial part of every character; this post explains why you need them, and how to implement realistic motivations in your own characters.

15. Stop writing for readers

If you're an experienced author, you've probably come across the advice to “write to market.” And while this is important if you're looking to publish, the pressure of other people's expectations can be a huge inhibitor that — you guessed it — manifests as a major block.

So throw the market out the window for now and write for yourself, not your potential readers. This will help you reclaim the joy of being creative and get you back in touch with what matters: the story.

Indeed, it may even help your writing in the end! Disregarding what readers expect, especially if your genre is particularly “literary,” often loosens your prose into sounding less pretentious and more real.

16. Try a more visual process

When words fail you, forget them and get visual. Create mind maps, drawings, Lego structures — ideally related to your story, but whatever unblocks your mind!

You might also try the Inkflow app, which works like a visual word processor, so you can easily move your ideas around/doodle on them as you wish. If you’re the kind of person who likes to outline by placing sticky notes on the wall, then this app might be your new best friend.

17. Look for the root of it

As Singer and Barrios pointed out, writer’s block often comes from a problem deeper than simple “lack of inspiration.” So let's dig deep: why are you really blocked? Ask yourself the following questions:

• Do I feel pressure to succeed and/or competition with other writers?
• Have I lost sight of what my story is about, or interest in where it's going?
• Do I lack confidence in my own abilities, even if I've written plenty before?
• Have I not written for so long that I feel intimidated by the mere act?
• Am I simply feeling tired and run-down?

Each of these problems has a different solution, of course. For example, if you feel pressure to succeed, you should remind yourself that writing anything is an enormous accomplishment, and literary recognition isn't the end-all be-all of success. Or if you're feeling tired and drained, you should take a few days off from writing! But you have to get to the root of the block first: once you identify what's wrong, it'll be so much easier to fix.

18. Quit the Internet

It’s a small miracle that writers can get ANYTHING done on machines designed to access a world of distraction. If willpower isn’t your strong suit and your biggest challenge is staying focused, try a site blocker like Freedom or an app like Cold Turkey. The latter is a particularly cool solution to writer's block — it turns your computer into a typewriter until you reach your writing goal, so you literally can't do anything else.

19. Let the words find you

When you can't find the words, let them find you! Meditate, go for a walk, take that shower we recommended, or (the eternal refrain) use an app to get the words flowing.

Word Palette is a great “fridge poetry-esque” app that features a keyboard of random words, allowing you to simply click your way to your next masterpiece. You can also try AI auto-completers like Talk to Transformer, where you can enter a phrase and let the app “guess what comes next.”

Even though these tools result in mostly nonsense, they're still a fun reminder not to take writing too seriously — which, again, is a major cause of writer's block.

20. Write like Hemingway

And if your biggest block is your own self-doubt about your prose, Hemingway offers suggestions to improve your writing as you go. Advice includes things like: “too verbose,” “use a forceful verb,” and “use active voice instead of passive.”

This app is so sharp, it even provides editorial feedback to the writing of its namesake: Ernest Hemingway! (Try pasting the line: “There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self” into the app.)

Of course, there's no magic trick or formula when it comes to overcoming writer's block. But if you add these 20 tips to your creative arsenal, you’ll be well on your way to kicking it to the curb. Good luck and may the muse be with you!

---

What are your best methods for eliminating writer's block? Leave any thoughts or questions in the comments below!

The post How to Overcome Writer's Block: 20 Helpful Tips appeared first on Reedsy.

Branding is a word that seems to have one day—POOF—appeared out of the ether. In fact, when I began blogging in 2006 almost no one in publishing used the term. The rare few who did were hard-pressed to properly/clearly define what a ‘brand’ was.

In fact, many authorities believed authors didn’t need to be bothered with silly passing fads like ‘the Internet’ and ‘social media’ until about 2013. Why would authors need to build a brand?

All a writer needed was a good book. Facebook will last a year at best.

Yep.

Today, in 2019, the words ‘brand’ and ‘branding’ seem to be tossed around daily. Everyone and everything is or has or needs a brand. What’s funny is that branding might seem completely new, yet has been around since…people.

Granted how important a brand is, the need for one as an author, etc. is a fairly recent development. Yes, we need to craft excellent books (product) but we also must begin building our author brand EARLY.

***As in the first day we believe we might one day want to sell a book.

Ah, but calm down. There’s a lot of confusion regarding what a brand actually is. Many assume ads, marketing, and promotional campaigns are ‘branding.’

Yeah…no.

We can build a brand, but alas we cannot buy one. There are no shortcuts. Ads, promotion, marketing can help expand an existing brand, but cannot be substituted for one.

This approach is akin to believing a Japanese robot-wife is the same as a real human wife. In some areas of life, shortcuts end up a) a waste of time b) a bigger waste of money c) a remake of Blade Runner.

Branding Basics

I wrote my book Rise of the Machines—Human Authors in a Digital World to be evergreen information. In my POV, social media changes daily, but humans never change.

Just read Shakespeare or look at your ex’s Facebook page *rolls eyes*.

That’s why my social media/branding guide focuses a lot more on the science behind what creates what we recognize as a brand. 

What captures our attention? What turns us off? What renders a brand invisible (thus a non-brand)? What habits/behaviors can ruin a powerhouse brand that once seemed bulletproof?

How can one brand launch into the stratosphere with little to no budget when another fails miserably no matter how many millions of dollars are poured into ad campaigns and celebrity endorsements?

Obviously, my book delves into far more detail about the science behind branding. But a little common sense goes a long way. 

Thus, today we’ll simply touch on why our everyday on-line behaviors collect into a larger pool we call ‘author brand.’

First…

Branding is NOT New

The thing is, humans have always had a ‘personal brand.’ Branding, in its simplest form, is what descriptors we attach to another person. It’s that person’s story.

It’s an innate habit we use to organize and transition the fuzzy and inchoate into the dramatic and memorable.

Branding is simply an extension of story.

That guy/that gal is too amorphous for us to remember. It also doesn’t provide enough detail for us to know how we should respond.

But, ‘That guy who’s been married four times, loves hunting, and collects sports cars’ provides a narrative (a story) that will either resonate or repel depending on the audience.

Humans dig labels, now more than ever before. It’s how we make our increasingly larger world somewhat manageable.

Thus, people we ‘know’ are frequently tethered to a variety of descriptors—vegan, sports enthusiast, triathlete, cat lady, Cowboys fan, craftsy person, the comedian, etc.

There’s the perfect, put-together Pinterest moms and then there’s me….

This, in a nutshell, is ‘branding.’ Humans have been doing this ‘branding’ thing since the dawn of time. The only difference in a ‘personal brand’ and an ‘author brand’ is that the ‘author brand’ should eventually drive book sales.

Also, branding is now more vital than ever before because of the sheer volume of information, people, choices, etc.

This is why author brands are essential, since a brand is basically a beacon drawing people (readers) to something they find familiar and that they already know they like.

Here is where science comes in handy.

The Neurological Shortcut

Our brains are remarkable organs that have the ability to adapt to our environment. Before the invention of the written word, our memory centers were far larger because we had to pass down information orally.

In fact, if you took an fMRI reading of a tribesman from some isolated Amazonian tribe, his brain would look and act very differently from yours or mine.

With the advent of the written word, our memory centers shrank but we gained even larger areas for abstract thinking. This was around the time we start seeing major explosions in science and engineering.

#Pyramids

Now we’re in the Digital Age, and we’re bombarded with stimuli. Internet, television, radio, smart phones, pop-ups, etc. etc. We’ve lost our stellar memory centers and our ability to focus for long periods of time and have gained an unprecedented ability to multitask.

Our brains must process massive amounts of information faster than ever before.

Think about it. We see ads on Facebook all the time. Or do we? Our brains have literally learned to un-see. We cannot manage all the input.

So, if we (authors) are eventually going to advertise our books, how do we make our content visible? 

Branding with Intention

Since our brain is much like a computer processor, it must come up with ways to effectively manage all this input in order to maintain efficiency. To do this, it relies on what are called somatic markers.

Somatic markers are neurological shortcuts and are one of the most primitive functions of the brain because they are uniquely tied to survival and procreation. It’s the same shortcut that tells us the stove is hot.

We don’t need to sit and ponder the stove. We likely learned when we were very small not to touch.

To give you an idea of how somatic markers work, let’s do a little exercise. Is there a perfume or cologne you can smell and it instantly transports you back in time?

Maybe to that first love or even *cringes* that first heartbreak? A song that makes you cry?

Perhaps there is a food you once ate that made you sick and even though there is no logical reason you shouldn’t eat it now, the mere thought of eating it makes you queasy.

These are somatic markers. When it comes to branding, somatic markers are vital.

The Pepsi Challenge

If you are around my age or older you can remember The Pepsi Challenge. For years, Pepsi had been trying to gain an edge over Coca Cola, which had dominated the soft drink industry for generations.

Pepsi—figuring it had nothing to lose—came up with the idea of setting up a table in stores and shopping malls and encouraging people to take a blind taste test.

The results were astonishing…to Pepsi more than anyone.

In a blind taste test, people preferred the taste of Pepsi. Coca Cola was rattled by this news.

They performed the same test and it turned out, people preferred the taste of Pepsi…and this led to brilliant ideas like ‘New Coke’ which was one of the most epic brand failures in business history.

Why did New Coke fail?

Coca Cola reformulated to make the drink sweeter. In blind taste tests, New Coke was a clear winner. So then why did it tank so badly?

Somatic markers.

What Happened? New Coke, ‘Old’ Brains

Years later, neuroscientists decided to see if they could demystify what happened in The Pepsi Challenge. 

They conducted the exact same experiment, only this time they hooked participants up to an fMRI machine so they could witness what areas of the brain lit up.

They held the taste test the same way it was conducted in the 70s—a blind taste test. To their amazement, participants preferred the taste of Pepsi in almost the exact same numbers.

According to the fMRI, the ventral putamen, the area of the brain that tells us something tastes yummy, lit up like Vegas.

*Some have speculated that when it is only a sip, people will prefer the sweeter drink.*

The ‘Human Factor’ in the Brand Equation

The scientists then decided to try something a bit different. They did the test again, only this time they told the participants what they were drinking. This time, Coca Cola won BIG.

Ah, but something strange happened in the brain. 

Not only did the ventral putamen light up, but so did the prefrontal cortex, the area of the brain associated with emotion and memory.

See, when it was based on taste alone, Pepsi won. But, when the brands were compared, Coca Cola won. The human brain was in a wrestling match between two very different regions—taste and emotions.

Coca Cola had the advantage because of the vast reservoir of fond memories associated with the brand. In short, Coca Cola had a STORY for sale.

Norman Rockwell Americana, cute polar bears, I’d Like to Buy the World a Coke, every BBQ, summer vacation, rollerskating parties, Friday nights with pizza and on and on all were part of the Coca Cola arsenal.

The fond memories (positive somatic markers) associated with the brand literally changed the taste and gave Coca Cola the winning edge.

Somatic Marker Meets Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon

Ever run into a term you KNOW you’ve never heard in your life, then hear it at least four more times in the next week? Or see something you know you’ve never seen before, then suddenly it’s everywhere? Reverse-harems? Punk-Rockabilly-Zydeco? Kombucha?

I’d never heard of Bikram Yoga until a friend told me about it and then…it was everywhere. Following me with sweaty mats…and Kombucha O_O .

The Baader-Meinhof phenomenon is also known as the frequency illusion or the recency illusion. 

At first glance, one might think this is why it’s a great idea to automate everywhere! Churn out lots of ads! Exposure! The more people see me, my name, my face, my book, the BETTER!

Follow them to the BATHROOM!

Not so quickly.

The Baader-Meinhof phenomenon seems to kick in strongest when there’s some kind of an emotional response tethered to the ‘thing.’ 

Interestingly, the stronger the emotional response (positive or negative), the more likely we will see that car, food, book, name, that we suddenly believe is now everywhere, surrounding us.

Ah, but when it comes to OUR brand, what emotional response are we creating? Are people seeing our name because of some good encounter?

Or do they see it and silently rage because we keep crapping up their feeds with automation? Are we all take and no give?

Ads That Pop-Up vs. Ads That POP

We see ads all over. More than ever before in human history, which is why our brains are getting so clever with shortcuts. Most ads we literally do not see.

I could take any random person and have them click through twenty pages of BuzzFeed memes and they’ll remember the memes (emotional), but are unlikely to remember most of the ads plastered all along the sides.

Though most ads will be invisible, some are not. Some might even leap off the page. Why?

What makes us ‘see’ that advertisement?

When we have a highly positive or vastly negative experience, we’re far more likely to notice the ad.

If we see an ad for a book, we may or may not notice. But what about an ad for a book written by someone we know?

Someone perhaps we talked to and liked? The ad practically leaps from the page. We might even buy it because we SAW her ad and OMG! I know her!

Ads alone have very little power to compel a purchase. But, couple them with a brand (story/narrative/emotional experience), and the odds of a sale greatly improve.

This is why ads and promotion alone do very little to impact sales. Until there is a narrative (emotion) attached to the name?

It’s expensive white noise.

Ah, but what’s worse than a non-brand? A poisoned brand. If our brand is the story connected to our names (and by association our books), there can be nothing worse than the toxic brand.

The Biggest Loser Brand Fail

The biggest brand fail I witness is how much authors underestimate the power of social media behavior and its consequential impact on their author brand.

Social media is a massive part of our everyday lives. Everywhere we go, we see people fixated on smart phones, posting pics, messaging friends. Humans are wired to be social, so if you want to know where all the readers are? They are on-line.

***Whether this is good or bad is for another post entirely.

This said, we must appreciate that this isn’t 2008, the age before smart phones, a time when only early adopters lurked on Twitter and MySpace.

Back before roughly 2015, the largest and strongest part of the author brand happened to be the books (because a book is roughly 15 hours of interaction with the author’s ‘voice’).

But now? When people are constantly checking in with their favorite social site(s)? How we ACT and treat other people is the biggest part of the brand. It doesn’t matter how well we write, how awesome our books are, or how cheap we make our product.

If we poison our brand with too many negative somatic markers, we can devastate our brand, regardless how well we write, and the reason is this:

The most powerful somatic marker of ALL is the negative one (namely because it’s intrinsically woven into our very survival).

This is why that tuna salad that gave you food poisoning fifteen years ago still makes your stomach heave just thinking about it. Your body is warning you that this food might kill you (even though logically, you know this tuna salad is fresh).

The primordial brain doesn’t care about logic. Lizard-brain is ALL emotions and experiences and these experiences have a MASSIVE impact on our brand.

There are authors I used to preorder their books. Now? I wouldn’t accept a book of theirs even if it were free.

Why? Because they forgot that people are watching, that flesh and blood humans are on the other side of that screen.

Their ranting, raving, complaining, spamming, name-calling, and trolling comments eventually added up so many negative experiences that there was pretty much no way to counter the effect.

Brands are no longer just about the books.

Books are vital, but what elements are we adding to our story (our brand) when we’re online? When people see our content do they smile, laugh, feel good, want to share the fun? Or do they feel bullied, depressed, overwhelmed, targeted, or defensive?

Colin Shaw’s blog ’15 Statistics that Should Change the Business World but Haven’t’ collected some interesting stats that I’d like to share:

It takes 12 positive experiences to make up for one unresolved negative experience. – ‘Understanding Customers’ by Ruby Newell-Legner.

A dissatisfied customer will tell between 9-15 people about their experience. Around 13% of dissatisfied customers tell more than 20 people. – White House Office of Consumer Affairs.

70% of buying experiences are based on how the customer feels they are being treated. – McKinsey.

When we’re on social media…

Everything Matters

Every post, comment, retweet adds to the story that is our author brand.

People might not remember exactly what we say, but they’ll always remember how we made them feel. In an age where audiences are flooded with too many choices, they’ll default to who they know, who they like, and who consistently makes them FEEL the best (loads of positive somatic markers).

Does this mean we can’t express opinions, that we need to be a cute kitten meme factory and Pod Person? Not at all. My advice is we’re wise to promote what we love instead of bashing what we hate.

For instance, if I’m a vegan and post ’12 Reasons Vegans are Sexier’ on Facebook, then fellow vegans will experience a positive somatic marker.

Those followers who aren’t vegans likely won’t react at all (a neutral somatic marker) because I’ve not placed them in the crosshairs of an attack. In fact, the non-vegan followers might even SHARE my post with vegan friends and family. And if not?

No big deal because we’re all still friends who can agree that we can be friends without being clones.

Keeping the ‘Social’ in Social Media

Now that y’all have had a Neuroscience 101 crash course—and I guarantee you will see Baader-Meinhof OR Kombucha at least three times in the next week—let’s get down to what’s most essential.

Branding is all story.

It’s a collection of emotional experiences that tie our name to some set of descriptors (hopefully positive ones). This is why automation can’t substitute for hopping on-line and talking to people. It’s why the Golden Rule still rules and why YES, goofing off on Facebook and posting kitten videos counts as branding.

Eventually, with love, care and nurturing, followers can become friends and even FANS.

So have fun. Relax. Show up. Be present and engage authentically. Go write great books and enjoy the people you meet along the way.

Coming UP!

If you want to know more about author branding and how to cultivate your own unique story that will attract your unique audience, I’m teaching some killer classes (and remember ALL our classes come with a FREE recording with purchase):

Branding: When Your Name Alone Can Sell

This THURSDAY. Use Brand10 for $10 off. My goal is to teach you how to build a brand so powerful your NAME sells books so you don’t have to. More writing and less *gags* marketing.

Spilling the TEA: Blogging for Authors

Blogging is a powerful way to build an author brand and also make a great income doing what we love…writing. Use Tea10 for $10 off.

As for craft I have a COMPLETELY NEW CLASS!

The Art of Character: Writing Characters for a SERIES

Next Tuesday!

How do we create characters that readers will fall in love with, characters strong enough to go the distance? Find out in this THREE-HOUR class that also comes with detailed notes and a character-building template. Use Binge10 for $10 off.

This class dovetails with my previous class, Bring on the Binge: How to Plot and Write a Series (NowON DEMAND). Use Binge10 for $10 off.

Also, one of my partners in crime, Maria Grace has a totally new craft class THIS FRIDAY!

Populating Planet X: Character Building for Science Fiction

How do we craft human stories when our characters might not be human? Science fiction relies on technology and world-building, but ultimately all great stories are people stories. Use tinfoil10 for $10 off.

This class relates directly to More than Crop Circles: Intro to Science Fiction On Demand. Use tinfoil10 for $10 off. It also ties directly to Not in Kansas Anymore: Science Fiction World0Building On Demand. Use tinfoil10 for $10 off.

Come join all the nerdy fun! See y’all in class!

The post Branding & The Brain: How Social Media Changes but People Never Will appeared first on Kristen Lamb.

Condo associations are known for disagreements over every little thing. Here is how you start to handle that: First, establish a set of common goals to which everyone can agree. For example, we all want: a peaceful and secure place to live. with reasonably low monthly assessments, and gradually increasing property values. Next, establish priorities. … Continue reading Tips for a Condo Association Board →

***

Quick Start Your Writing Career (Live Workshop)

Please join David for his new workshop, Quick Start Your Writing Career, held on June 30, 2018 at the the Provo Marriott Hotel and Conference Center at 101 W. 100 North, Provo, Utah

The workshop costs $99 for the day and lunch is not included. There is space for 80 attendees.

Dave will speak about the following subjects:

Breaking onto the Best-seller Lists
How to Get Discovered
Defining Yourself As an Author
Plotting Your Career
Going Indie vs. Traditional Publishing
Multimedia–Your Most Indispensable Asset
How to Reach a Vast Audience
Dealing with Agents, Editors, and Movie Producers.

Register here!

The post Appealing to the Senses, Part 2 appeared first on David Farland.

There is, almost literally, an unlimited number of things you could focus on to create a high impact data-influenced organization.

And, as if unlimited is not enough, nearly every month your analytics vendors release new features, you discover new analytics solutions, and as your business is more successful (hurray!) there is a new mobile app to track or a new digital experience to problem-solve or a crazy online to offline campaign that upends everything unleashes a new layer of tactical activity.

In a world when your work will never be done, how do you assess that the core things necessary are present? How do you ensure that your can zig-zag with business strategy? What guarantees that agility and innovation are present in your analytics practice?

I believe there are five elements that have to be persistently present in the primordial soup at any company that expects amazing life to spring forth.

You'll be surprised, there's only one tool in that mix. It is not even an analytics tool. My reason for that is simple… At this point, it honestly does not matter which web analytics tool you use as long as it is a tool that is under active development by your vendor. Yes, some tools can dance on their left foot and others can only do so with their right foot. Not as important as you might think.

My recommended five elements are much more primal, their presence powers brilliant life to constantly evolve.

Here's a little back story.

I was asked a few weeks back: "What companies should we proactively help with analytics, for free, so that they can make smarter data-influenced decisions?" I think the answer expected was my view related to the size of the company or their industries or those that might have Google Analytics or those with big advertising spends etc. My answer was: "Look for these two elements, if they are present then it is worth helping the company with free consulting and analysis. If they are not, no matter how much money or how many Analysts they have, helping them is a waste of time because nothing will live after your consulting is done ."

That lead to this post. At the end of this post, I'll share the two that I recommended to the team in our conversation above. But first, let me do something a bit more expansive and share all the key elements necessary to ensuring an analytics existence that can help create a high-impact data-influenced organization.

Ready?

1. Google Tag Manager.

You live or die by the data you collect, and the quality of that data.

The single biggest limiting factor in your ability to think smart and move fast when it comes to taking advantage of the latest and greatest features is tagging your site.

I was speaking with a massive national insurance company recently. To implement a couple of my ideas they shared that it would take them seven months to update the code on their website. Obviously this is a multi-billion dollar corporation, some rigidity and layers are to be expected. But. Seven gosh darn months! I was not even asking for something crazy like moving from old lamer tags to a full featured Universal Analytics implementation. They already have bits of the latter, I'd recommended a couple simple upgrades.

No matter how good your idea, if you can't get it implemented quickly, it is dead on arrival. Yes, you can blame the IT team and their long queue of things and prioritization process. DOA.

Data quality plays a role into this.

If you are a large company, ensuring QA adds more time and layers to the simple act of releasing code. And, most of the time, regardless of the size of the size of the company, you only know your code is not working post-launch when data is flowing in (not!). A good tag management platform fixes this problem as QA and other auditing is built into the tag manager's deployment process.

Two reasons you need to ensure that you have Google Tag Manager.

Yes, yes, yes, there is also the benefit that you replace the massive glob of code on your site with one simple container tag. So beautiful. And, of course there is the delicious detail of this strategy not adding burden to your site's visitor experience due to it's async nature. Nice. Oh, and I agree that being able to pretty much one click deploy valuable things like exit-link, downloads, scroll tracking etc. is lovely. Ok, ok, ok it is a life saver to have 21 vendor templates for vendors as diverse as Adobe Analytics and Criteo and Firebase means you can use GTM for so much more than GA, and you can make functional calls for 61 additional ones including Marin, Nielsen, Twitter, Webtrekk etc. You got me, I am ignoring all the data layer and custom stuff!

All that is great. But, at the end of the day presence of a Tag Manager communicates to me that the company is serious about data collection and data quality. AND, that if I have good ideas, they will get to market very quickly – making our engagement worth the current interaction and the continued success of new ideas after the engagement.

If your company does not have a Tag Manager and its supporting processes deployed, you are simply not serious about wanting to make speedy smart business decisions. The size of your business is irrelevant. End of story.

Hence, if you don't have one yet, get GTM as it is free and powerful. Or get any other dedicated tag management platform out there. Qubit is one. Our friends at Adobe have DTM . There are others, a google query away. Small recommendation… Just stay away from non-dedicated tools that do tag management and save the whales and are trying to help decide if skinny jeans are in or out.

2. Digital Marketing & Measurement Model.

If you don't know where you are going, any road will take you there and you'll be miserable when you arrive.

That's it. That's the problem afflicting the analytics ecosystem (regardless of if you have one part-time analyst and a tool or you have 50 analysts and 20 tools). We don't know the strategic priorities of the business. We don't know our line of sight is to those priorities. We don't know what good and bad performance looks like. Problematic, right?

My solution to this, incredibly real and frustrating problem, is to insist on seeing the signed in blood version of the company's Digital Marketing & Measurement Model.

It is the result of a simple, yet intense, five step process where each step requires the answer to a simple question – with active involvement of your Sr. Management.

Each step has a sweet name: Objectives | Goals | KPIs | Targets | Segments.

Simple, right?

Yet, I bet a big hug that the output of this simple five step process does not exist at your company. Heartbreakingly, you are driving a ship with no navigational instruments.

Everyone should have a well-defined DMMM.

Here's mine for this humble little blog that makes no money except for charity from the sale of my books…

It should be easy to see how this brings massive focus to my analytical efforts. I know what is important, I know what to ignore, and I know what my boss (my beloved wife) really cares about. We are both aligned. I spend 50% less time on data analysis and 50% more time on driving actions that will impact those targets you see above.

You can easily see that now my dashboard is simpler. Any features I need to chase in my analytics tool (with GTM hopefully) are easier to identify. When I come to work I know what matters. And, most importantly, everything I'll provide to my boss helps her deeply internalizes I am focused 100% on business priorities – rather than random big data sojourns.

That is what you want.

If you don't have this, ideally signed in blood by your leadership team and you, then you are just messing around with data. If you are a government analytics team, you are wasting time. If you are a small business part-time analyst, you are wasting time. If you are an Analytics cog at a massive company like HP or Marks & Spencer, you are wasting time.

Don't waste time, DMMM!

[Question four can be very hard to answer. Here's a post that will help you figure out how to set targets by opening your mind about all the possibilities: Benchmarking Analytics Performance: The Options, Dos, Don'ts]

3. Macro & Micro Outcomes Content/Strategy.

This has nothing to do with analytics or analysts.

It simply helps identify the landscape of possibilities. Is your company walking the talk necessary for you in the analytics team to drive massive business success online and offline? .

Most companies solve for 2% of the possibilities. They only want to sell, if they are an e-commerce website. They only want to throw up a one page lead-gen form if they are B2B. They only want to ask you for a donation if they are a politician's digital presence.

Solving for just an ecommerce order or just a lead or just a donation is ok in the sense that all these things drive short-term success for their individual businesses. Then challenge you have to recognize is each of these is only solving for 2% of the possibilities. The universe of possibilities from your digital presence is massive. Specifically, it is 98% more than your current single obsession.

Only having the content/strategy for 2% results in a very narrow focus for your analytics tools, processes and people.

Instead, every company should solve for a global maxima…. Yes, make the short-term money, it is necessary, but also do the but not sufficient part as well….

The above optimal strategy indicates that the company leadership is forward-thinking. It indicates a whole lot more people and empowerment when it comes to digital. It indicates imagination for a nonline impact. It indicates taking complete advantage of the See-Think-Do-Care clusters of digital intent.

In the above case, the implication on analytics team will be to give them a much wider canvas when it comes to creative analysis, people influence and business impact.

You might not realize how important this is. Let's make it real.

Visit Kohls.com for just a few minutes, poke around, look for the macro and micro-outcomes. Very quickly, like me, you'll be able to plot out this map…

Do you see what I mean when I say thinking strategically and solving for all clusters of digital intent? Online, offline, mobile, acquisition, brand love, relationships, product pimping, community stewardship and so much more!

Can you see how rich and impactful the role of the Kohl's Analytics team will be with the above collection of both normal and innovative things? There is a lot to do, the business has bet big on digital. You are going to have access to a ton of data, a ton of customer behavior, that is driving a ton of business value. It makes Analytics a lot of fun and valuable. Analytics can actually have a meaningful long-time impact.

Now try Belk. Or even Macy's who's not really a competitor of Kohl's. In both cases, a lot narrower business focus, a lot smaller expectations of digital, and hence a lot less influence or impact Analytics can bring. Not that either of these two massive companies don't have 500 Digital Analysts each. They do. But, the creativity, expansiveness, and long-term true driving force won't quite be there.

You want the global maxima. If you don't have it, you are certainly doing Analytics and having some impact on short-term narrow success. But, you will never be as influential as you deserve to be. Fix it.

4. Analytics Resources Focus: 15 | 35 | 50

My fav.

You've heard me constantly stress the value of the 10/90 rule for investment in Analytics. For every $100 available for investment in Analytics… Invest $10 in tools and implementation, invest $90 in big brains to analyze the data.

The rule was published a decade ago (#omg), and has only become more true with every passing data with the explosion of free amazing tools combined with the crazy-increase in complexity in data and customer behavior.

Even if you follow the 10/90 rule, it is important to focus our time and resources optimally. I suspect this is true in your company, a whole lot of your effort is spent on fixing/upgrading implementations (see #1 above) and creating CDPs (customized data pukes). This is sub-optimal.

There is a difference between reporting and analysis.

If you have the latter, your Analysts will… actually be Analysts. They will be forced to develop a strong understanding of all facets of the business, they will be empowered to apply their complete quiver of skills to deliver specific insights that include actions, and they will identify the business impact for each action. [The extremely sexy I-A-BI.]

Not every company can afford to have full-time people dedicated to analysis. Hence let me make optimal recommendations for three types of companies.

If you are a handful of employees small business, here's your balance between data capture, data reporting, data analysis: 05 | 20 | 25.

You are a small business, I get it, you only have a part of one resource dedicated to data. No problem. Ensure that part-time resource is spending their time with a 05 | 20 | 25 balance. At your size, you'll still win with data.

If you are a numerous employees medium sized business that is growing at a ferocious pace, here's your DC | DR | DA balance: 10 | 25 | 65.

Don't ask for too much reporting. If you were going to have three "Analysts", pay more and hire two real Analysts. Then, ask for real analysis. Ask for I-A-BI.

No organization will be born into this 10 | 25 | 65 distribution on day one. It will take evolution to get there. Here are the time based milestones (on your left) that I set for my medium sized clients who are growing at a ferocious pace…

The reason for this rapid evolution is in the right-most column.

Until we get to a 65% standard for DA, we are not adding value that is justified by the $$$ and people investment in Analytics.

Lastly, if you are a massive employees corporation here's your DC | DR | DA balance: 15 | 35 | 50.

It is ironic that you have a team of 25 Analysts, 5 more people dedicated to implementation, a huge analytics tool support contract with consulting agency resources attached to it, and the best you can do is 50% Analysis. It is a very sad reality.

Massive companies think reporting (#cdpsFTW!) is the solution to all known problems. It is silly of course. But, I've discovered that I need to be humble. Massive companies cannot function without the soothing balm of data puking. Hence, I try to salvage 50% time and resources to be dedicated to pure, sweet, amazing Analysis. That will ensure a decent return on your analytics investment .

So. What do you have?

If you don't have at least 50% of the analytics time and resources dedicated to solving for the known unknowns and the unknown unknowns, your analytics practice is set up for nothing serious. Cutting it by 75% will have marginal impact on your business success. If you don't believe me, give 75% of your Analytics team a one week vacation and you'll notice hardly anyone else in your massive corporation will notice.

DA. 50% minimum.

[Bonus: Nine skills that Analysis Ninjas have to possess!]

5. Optimal Analytics Team Org Structure.

How do you empower the above?

Ensure that the Analytics team is structured so that the above focus balance, and other things in this post, can happen. Don't do this and no matter how much your investment in analytics resources and tools, sucking will ensue.

If you've read Web Analytics 2.0 you might have a sense for my point of view on this topic already.

When organizations are small or medium sized or extremely new, a centralized model typically works the best.

You are starved for resources, the business is simple enough and everyone knows everyone, you are better off with your finite Analytics resources in one place, executing off one data playbook and one clean Digital Marketing and Measurement Model.

The entire team/person reports to a CxO, bringing with it influence. The functions, or divisions, will rely on the central team for all data (analysis!) needs, and will provide input in terms of their strategy and needs (they'll actually tell you their wants, but your personal smarts will be proven when you can get them to needs). Just ensure that you note the balance of DC | DR | DA recommend above, and you'll do fine.

When organizations are growing from medium to big at a rapid clip, a decentralized model has a high impact.

The business is changing really fast, the disparate parts of the org are evolving at different speeds and they also tend to have distinct needs. Having your analytical resources directly in the business function/divisions brings speed and ability that is critical for business success. Yes, there will be some inefficiency but never let a dogma get in the way of doing the right thing.

It is ideal, even in a decentralized model, that you have one person, perhaps in your IT org, officially own implementation (or even better, all facets of DC). This will help bring some sense of sanity, and reduce at least some inefficiency.

For established businesses with a lot at stake (and analytics resources) in my experience the optimal model is centralized decentralization.

A small experienced core group at the center, lead by the Analytics Czar (yes!) with responsibility for every facet of the entire company's data collection, data reporting and data analysis. Additionally, an Analyst, or more, embedded directly in each business function – who dotted lines into the central org.

The center owns the overall analytics strategy, decision making around standards and tools and processes for the company, the evaluation of new analytics solutions, investment in training, and all the complex experimentation required when new approaches to tools, data, analytical techniques appear on the horizon. They are also responsible for the overall analysis to fill corporate needs for cross-functional analysis. The purpose of this centralized analysis is to keep everyone focused on what's good for the overall business, and to help fuel strategic business decisions.

Analysts that sit in the business function are responsible for 100% of functional analysis needs. They do the little reporting that is required, lots of delivering of IABI, ensuring alignment of data needs with functional priorities, local training, and bubbling up functional needs up to the central team.

Centralized decentralization provides a model solve for both operational efficiency and strategic influence/impact.

So, what do you have? For your size, is your org set-up with the optimal model? Or, is your org just floundering about with analytics in some dark basement or in random corners? Identify, take action.

[Bonus: Surely you are also wondering, who should the Analytics function report to? I have an answer for you, but here's something better… a framework for critical thinking on analytics ownership.]

There they are. Five elements that signal existence of the primordial soup capable of birthing, and evolving, the kind of analytics existence that every company deserves.

If these five elements don't exist, it is important to realize that that will not only cause data efforts to have a negative return on analytics, it will also have a negative impact on your career. Simply because if you are not doing great work that delivers huge data-influenced business impact, your career is not going anywhere.

Ideally that is not the case, but if it is then you now have a very specific prescription of how to fix the gaps in your company's strategy. They win, your career takes off like a rocket!

Oh, and to close out the back story from the top of the post. I'd mentioned I recommended two elements the team should look for in the clients before giving them free consulting and resources. It was #1 and #3. It would be hard for an outsider to assess other things, but these two they could and it would tell them all they needed to know. Since I am very fond of my audience here, and most of you work inside companies, I wanted to give you all five. :)

As always, it is your turn now.

Is there an element that has to exist that I did not cover? Why do you think it is particularly critical? Do all five of the elements above exist in your company? If not, which one's missing in your company or others you've worked at? Would you share tips that have driven the success of any one of the five elements, of all of them? I'm particularly curious which organization model you think drives most true IABI-centric data analysis?

Please share your feedback, learnings, critique, via comments.

Thank you.

Five Key Elements For A Big Analytics Driven Business Impact is a post from: Occam's Razor by Avinash Kaushik

As a manger, particularly as a CEO or general manger, sometimes you are going to be in the position of leading a group whose function you have no experience in, and frankly, don’t have a clue about!

Before I get to the specifics here, I want to say: This is OK.

The road to become a CEO or General Manager is not to spend years — as I call it — “collecting all the cards” to get your own personal experience in every single function that you will ultimately manage. The goal is to make sure you have the ability to manage those functions effectively, not to DO all those functions personally.

In fact, one of the things that distinguishes the people who attain CEO and general manager roles is that they are willing to step into a job without having ALL the experience.

Remember, everyone who has been a CEO, has been a CEO for the first time.

But at the same time, you do need a way to credibly lead those functions even if you don’t know how to do the work yourself.

Lessons learned…

I learned this lesson at a point in my career where I did not know how to do the work my engineering team did.

Although I have degrees in electronic engineering and computer science, I had not been an engineer personally for many years when I found myself in the role of managing a team of engineering managers whose jobs I did not fully understand.

The good news: from a micromanagement standpoint I was totally safe because I had no idea how to do any of the work they were doing! Because technology moves so fast, whatever technical stuff I did know or do in the past was out of date.

But then I needed to figure out what else to do! If I wasn’t going to be adding value to the work my team was doing — then what should I be doing?

This is such an important question, and many leaders miss this when they have a role to manage a function that they themselves are personally expert in.

I was lucky…

It was wonderful bit of luck in my career because this situation forced me to figure out how to add value as a manger in ways other than adding value to the work itself. If I been an expert, I think it would have been too tempting to jump in, show my expertise and try to add value to the work, (which was not my job) instead of developing my team, and making sure we executed (which was my job).

Working ON the business vs. IN the business

I talk about this dynamic of working at the right level as working ON the business vs. working IN the business.
As managers we need to realize that our work is not to add value in the detailed content, but to focus your work on the excellent, and always improving functioning of the team.

Working IN the business is competing with your team. Working ON the business is making your team more capable and creating an environment where they can thrive.

One of the things that was scary and fascinating to me at this point in my career was that after a year of managing this team whose work I didn’t understand, I was really nervous about my own performance review. I was concerned that my team would not think I was a credible leader, because I did not understand their work at a sufficient depth.

But to the contrary, my boss received feedback from all of my direct reports who said, “Patty is the best manager I’ve ever had”.

So what did I do to warrant this feedback?

I found the right course between the two ends of the spectrum which as a manager you always want to avoid: Micromanaging, and Abdicating..

The temptation to abdicate

Managers (including me) are tempted to abdicate (run away happily!) when either they know nothing about the work, or the work is so boring and distasteful that they wish they didn’t have to deal with it at all!

If you’ve got someone on your team who actually understands and wants to do this unpleasant work, it’s so very tempting to say, “Thank god! YOU take it, I trust you… Please don’t even talk to me about it!”

That’s abdicating! But here is where you have to find the right point between micromanaging and abdicating. There is no danger in micromanaging because you don’t have the knowledge and skills to engage.

The real danger is in abdicating. So if you don’t abdicate, and you don’t jump in and try to add value to the work, how do you add value as a leader?

Keep ownership of the outcome

They way that I have learned to deal with this situation is to focus on outcomes.

When you are not an expert in the work, you can still be a strong leader by keeping ownership of outcomes. Sit down with the manager and have a discussion about concrete, desired outcomes.

Here are some useful outcome-oriented questions:

1. Over the next year, what do you think are the most important outcomes your team needs to deliver each quarter?
2. Can you walk me through the rationale for you selected those outcomes? Are these internally or externally driven?
3. Who other than our team cares about these outcomes? Have they agreed?
4. Are there any other outcomes that you think we might have missed?
5. How do you propose that I should measure you and your team on those outcomes?
6. What do you see as the risks you will face in delivering those outcomes? Can I help?

I have found that my direct reports (who were expert in the work that I knew nothing about) could bring to the table excellent ideas and specific measures, and we could have a really concrete discussion about necessary outcomes.

Solid Leadership

Through this conversation you show that you care about the work, that you are interested in maximizing outcomes, and that are ready to help mitigate risks. And you will end up with a solid performance and tracking plan. This is so much better than abdicating!

Use your network

Another useful technique I have discovered is to find people who have a lot more experience than you managing this same function, and to ask them:

• What is your definition of high performance in this area?
• What is your definition of a failure?
• What are the biggest risks you need to manage?
• What opportunities do you think the best organizations of this type need to be focused on now and moving forward?
• What do you think the biggest problems on the horizon are for this type or organization?
• How do you measure your people?
• What signs should I be looking for to know if things are going in the right or work direction?

Remember your goal is to educate your self on how to manage the function – not how to DO the function.

One caveat: I’ll write about this in a future post: All aspiring executives can benefit from personally spending some time in a sales role. But you can stop worrying about needing to “collect all the cards” to get experience in everything – it takes too long and you are getting the wrong experience. You need to learn how to manage all the functions, not do all the functions.

What do you think?

Join the conversation about this on my facebook page.

Was this useful?

If you found this article useful, please help me share it with others and encourage them to subscribe to this Blog for free.

About Patty

Patty Azzarello is an executive, best-selling author, speaker and CEO/Business Advisor. She became the youngest general manager at HP at the age of 33, ran a billion dollar software business at 35 and became a CEO for the first time at 38 (all without turning into a self-centered, miserable jerk)

You can find Patty at www.AzzarelloGroup.com, follow her on twitter or facebook, or read her book RISE…3 Practical Steps for Advancing Your Career, Standing Out as a Leader, AND Liking Your Life.

Free eBook Download

Your dad is an alcoholic. Your mom is mentally ill from syphilis and is institutionalized when you are a child. 

The post 3 Things I Learned From the Ultimate Choose Yourself Story appeared first on Altucher Confidential.

School: Make sure it’s long enough

I remember in grade school getting an assignment to do a “report” on a topic or a book. Part of the assignment was always the length.

“Make sure it’s two pages single spaced”.

Kids would struggle to make it long enough, using extra large margins, leaving a big gap under the title, and/or by writing really big.

Then in high school we advanced from reports to term papers which had to be 25 or 50 pages, typed, double spaced, and include supported research for every fact. You had to show how you built your case for the point you were making as part of the paper.

This approach continued into college: Complete, accurate, long. Show your research.

Business: I’m bored, get to the point

Then you get into business, and the last thing anyone wants to do is read a long report filled with the detailed archaeology about how you got to the point you are making.

Effective, written business communications are all about being brief and highly relevant to your audience.

For many, the school approach is a hard habit to break because this was drilled into us (in America, anyway) as the right and only way to do it.

I see business presentations and documents all the time that remind me of school term papers. They are too long, and not tuned for any audience in particular. They are a long march through detailed, accurate facts, with background data to support those facts along the way.

Proposals are presented as though the audience is a professor with no stake in the content, who will give a grade on the hypothetical completeness of the argument, and the grammar and punctuation in the document — instead of a busy executive who has a personal decision to make on whether or not to bet the business on your idea.

Accurate vs. Effective

You can be 100% accurate and 0% effective in your communications.

To be effective, first and foremost be as brief as possible.

If you are asked to share information or create a proposal, think, how can I create the most compelling case in the fewest amount of words, screens, pages or slides?

Also, always create version of your content that fits on one page. You can create more pages for a “complete version”, discussion or backup — but if you want your communication to get read and acted on, also have a one-page version.

Every time I had to deliver a business plan or strategy document that was 50-100 pages, I always created a communication document about that plan that fit on one page. Often it included a chart or a picture.

Here are some steps for brief and compelling communications:

Thinking and Preparation

1. Who is your audience?
2. What do they care about? (Remember, the stuff they really care about might have nothing to do with you.)
3. How do they talk about what they care about? What are the exact words they use to describe it?
4. Use their words to create a dictionary of the words you are allowed to use.

Outline for an effective executive communication

1. The Desired Outcome: Decide what the outcome of the communication needs to be. What should happen afterwards, as a result of this communication?

e.g. Outcome = They have confidence in you, and you get the funding.

2. The big opening: Create a hook for your communications by having the first thing you write be something the audience cares about – Trick: use only their words from the dictionary you created.

e.g. Your words: “Web self-service proposal” becomes — from their dictionary: “A plan to address the revenue shortfall in Europe”

3. Get to the point! State your desired outcome up front, but — hang it on the hook you created in your opening (so your audience will also care about your desired outcome)

e.g. This presentation shows that we can increase revenue by 10-20% in Europe by improving our web-self service — even if nothing else changes.

4. Make the choices really clear.

I can’t tell you, as an executive how many presentations I sat through where 45 minutes into a 1 hour presentation I had to ask, What are trying to tell me? What are you expecting me to do or take from this?

Don’t make your audience work hard to figure out what you need them to know, or want them to do. Spell it out for them.

e.g. We need your approval to extend the contract on 2 people, and to invest $225k. The ROI is in 1 quarter.

5. Be brief. Describe the plan and ROI as briefly as possible. Put all the data about how you got to this answer or recommendation in backup. Never take people through your process unless you are asked to do so.

6. The big finish: Ask for something to happen that will drive the outcome.

Delivering the Communication

Create a one page summary version that is the first page. Use a picture, block diagram or chart if possible.

Make the whole thing as short as possible so it contains the information it needs but no more. Offer more information upon request.

Before the meeting or presentation, distribute summary with an email that is very brief (so it gets read now, not ignored or filed for later) and has the action requested in the subject line. It also helps if none of the sentences wrap to a second line.

Subject: Action Requested: Need Your Decision by Friday (Europe Revenue)

Hi Jay,

I have attached the plan to address the revenue shortfall in Europe.

The first page is a one-page summary showing two choices.
FYI: I recommend choice A.

Action Requested: I need your decision by Friday.

Thanks so much.

(I have additional information about this if you have questions.)

Sell Your Ideas

Don’t let your own need for completeness shoot you in the foot. You need to sell your ideas, not just document them.

And then you need to take responsibility to close the deal and get the outcome.

What do you think?

Join the conversation about this on my Facebook page.

Was this useful?

If you found this article useful, please help me share it with others and encourage them to subscribe to this Blog for free.

ABOUT PATTY:

Patty Azzarello is an executive, best-selling author, speaker and CEO/Business Advisor.
She became the youngest general manager at HP at the age of 33, ran a billion dollar software business at 35 and became a CEO for the first time at 38 (all without turning into a self-centered, miserable jerk)

You can find Patty at www.AzzarelloGroup.com, follow her on twitter or Facebook, or read her book RISE…3 Practical Steps for Advancing Your Career, Standing Out as a Leader, AND Liking Your Life.

Free eBook Download

Annual performance evaluations are one of the worst tools ever invented. They distract from real-time performance, they are often backward focused, and the objectives for next year are usually overtaken by events before the toner dries. Even worse, they can be completely demoralizing if they include surprise criticism.

On the other hand, (there is always another hand) annual evaluations can have some very positive effects. They provide an opportunity to praise and reward the Executive Director (ED) for work well-done and for successful programs. Since the ED’s performance is key to the organization’s overall performance, the annual review provides the trigger for a full board review of the organization’s strategy, programs, outcomes, and impacts.

The review is often required by the by-laws or policy. The review is a key part of the due diligence function of the board. You cannot realistically get around it, and you can’t delegate it to the staff. You, as Board Chair, must do it yourself or lead a small evaluation committee.

The ED should see no surprises in his / her review. You, the Board Chair, should be holding one-on-one discussions at least monthly, where expectations and performance are discussed. I usually hold these about a week before the board meeting, as part of the meeting planning.

The Process

The evaluation process starts with a good job description and a clear strategic plan, implemented with a budget and annual operating plan.

The rest of the process depends on the situation. Some boards will want the you to handle it while others will form a committee. Some will survey the board. Some will survey those who report to the ED. Some will survey the clients. Some will survey ED’s at other organizations.

There are lots of surveys available on the web. There are lots of evaluation templates available.

The most basic points are:

1. What have you done?
2. How well did you do it?
3. What are the plans for the future?

The most common areas are budget performance, board support, performance toward annual goals, and movement toward strategic objectives. Every board will have their own view of other topics.

Once the evaluation is completed, it will then be reported to the whole board.

There are lots of other details, but instructions abound on the web.

4gifs:

You have the right to remain in stunned silence

[NOTE: The below post is not meant to be an endorsement for or a prohibition against guns in the real world in which we all live. It is a discussion of firearms in fiction. Keep comments civil... or I'll boot you out the airlock into the silent void.]

Guns, man. Guns.

*flexes biceps*

*biceps which turn into shotguns that blow encroaching ninjas to treacly gobbets*

CH-CHAK.

Ahem.

If you’re a writer in a genre space — particularly crime, urban fantasy, some modes of sci-fi — you are likely to write about some character using some gun at some point.

And when you write about the use of a gun in your story, you’re going to get something wrong. When you do, you will get a wordy email by some reader correcting you about this, because if there’s one thing nobody can abide you getting wrong in your writing, then by gosh and by golly, it’s motherfucking guns. Like how in that scene in The Wheel Of Game of Ringdragons when Tyrion the Imp uses the Heckler & Koch MP7 to shoot the horse out from under Raistlin and Frodo, the author, Sergei R. R. Tolkeen, gets the cartridge wrong. What an asshole, am I right?

You can get lots of things wrong, but you get guns wrong?

You’ll get emails.

As such, you should endeavor to get this stuff right. If only to spare yourself the time.

I’ve gotten them wrong from time to time, despite growing up around guns (my father owned and operated a gun store — we were hunters, we had a shooting range at the house, I got my first gun at age 12, etc.etc., plus he was a gunsmith, as well) and despite owning them.

Thus, seems a good time to offer up some tips on how to write guns well, and some common mistakes authors make when using the shooty-shooty bang-bangs in the stories they write. And yes, I’m probably going to get something in this very post wrong, and I fully expect you to correct me on it, YOU SELF-CONGRATULATORY BASTARDS.

Also — keep in mind that this list is by no means exhaustive.

You should go to the comments and add your own Things Writers Get Wrong About Guns.

• Let’s just get this out of the way now — if you want to write about guns, go fire one. Go to the range. Pick up a gun. Use it. This is your first and best line of defense when writing about a character and her firearm. Also, when you’re writing about murder, YOU SHOULD MURDER SOMEONE. Wait, no, don’t do that. I certainly never have! Ha ha ha! *kicks corpse under desk*

• Specificity breeds error. If you’re not highly knowledgeable about guns, then you might be best drifting away from specificity rather than toward it. The more particular you try to be about including details (“Dave held the Smith & Weston .45 revolver aloft and after jamming the clip into the cylinder he thumbed off the safety…”) the more you’re likely to get wrong. There’s value in just saying, y’know, he pointed the gun and pulled the trigger. You don’t have to get masturbatory with details. Admittedly, some genres like that kind of masturbation, but it’s a detail you can tweak later.

• Also masturbatory: All that egregious action-jacking. Characters don’t always need to do some fancy “jack the action” shit every time they’re handling a gun. Some guns need that. Some do not. Doing that will nearly always eject the shell that’s in the chamber, which is only a thing you want if it’s an empty casing and the gun does not automatically eject empty casings for you. Because many guns — like, say, pistols — are very efficient that way.

• No, the air did not stink of cordite. This is so common, it hurts me. Besides it being sorta dumb — I mean, it’s so needlessly specific, it’s like saying someone ate a banana and “tasted the potassium” — it’s also wildly inaccurate. Cordite hasn’t been in use pretty much since the middle of last century. Modern gunpowder is, like cordite, a smokeless propellant. (It’s also not very powdery; my father reloaded his own ammo and I was struck that gunpowder is more like little beads, like something a robot might eat atop its ice cream sundae. *crunch crunch crunch*)

• Revolvers don’t generally have external safeties. They do have safety mechanisms — hard-to-pull triggers, hammer blocks, etc. — but not many with traditional external safeties. (A rare few have what’s called a “grip safety,” particularly on hammerless revolvers, which despite their name aren’t actually hammerless, but merely conceal the hammer inside the gun. Blah blah blah. SO MANY THINGS TO GET WRONG.)

• Nope, Glocks don’t really have the standard manual safeties, either. More on a Glock’s safe action system here. Oh, and yes, a Glock will set off metal detectors. They’re not Hasbro toys.

• This is a magazine. This is a clip. Note the difference.

• This is a cylinder.

• This is Tommy, and he’s thuglife.

• The bullet is the projectile. The casing is the brass beneath it, in which you find the powder. Beneath that is the primer (which is what the firing pin strikes to set the whole party off). The entire thing is the cartridge (sometimes referred to as a ’round’). The caliber is the measurement of the bullet’s diameter. A caliber of .22 is 0.22 inches in diameter. Might also be measured in millimeters, as in 9mm. I’m surprised men don’t measure their wangs this way.

• Shotguns do not use bullets, and the ammo isn’t called ‘cartridges.’ They are called ‘shotgun shells.’ If if contains pellets, it might be referred to as a shotshell. If it contains a slug, probably not. In a shotshell, buckshot is larger pellet size, birdshot is smaller pellet size. Shotgun shells are measured not in caliber but rather, gauge (or bore), indicating a somewhat archaic measure of weight, not diameter. Then there’s the .410 (four-ten) bore. I don’t know why they do it that way. I’m going to blame wizards. Gun-wizards.

• Pistols let you know when your shit is empty. Last round fired — the action snaps back as if to say, “Hi, look at me, I’m no longer firing mushrooming lead at those aliens over there.” So, you can never have that scene where the hero or villain points the gun, pulls the trigger, and it goes click. I know, this robs you of such precious drama. Work around it.

• Guns do not have an eternal supply of rounds. They run out! True story.

• A ‘firearm’ is not a man whose arms are on fire, nor do they shoot fire.

• But that would be pretty sweet.

• Automatic weapon: one trigger pull = lotta rounds. Semi-auto: one trigger pull = one round. But, with a semi-auto, you can pull that trigger very quickly to fling many bullets quickly.

• Most revolvers are double-action, meaning you can pull back the hammer and have a very sensitive, light-touch trigger pull. Or you can leave the hammer uncocked (like a eunuch), and have a harder, more stubborn pull of the trigger. Revolvers that can only fire with the hammer drawn back are called “single-action.” Also, the archaic name for revolver is “wheel-gun.” Which is pretty nifty. Shotguns are sometimes called “scatterguns,” which I don’t think is as nifty, but whatever.

• I’ll let Myke Cole tell you about trigger discipline.

• Holy fuckpucker, firearms are fucking loud. A gun going off nearby will cause a user without ear protection to hear eeeeEEEEEEeeeee for an hour, maybe a day, maybe more. The sound is worse on the shooty bang bang side of the gun than it is for the user behind the weapon.

• Silencers — aka, suppressors — are basically bullshit, at least in terms of what most fiction thinks. They do not turn the sound of your BIG BANG-BANG into something resembling a mouse fart. It carves off about 20-30 decibels off somewhere between 150-200 decibels. The goal isn’t stealth so much as it is ear protection. They’re frequently illegal in the US.

• In an AR-15, AR does not stand for assault rifle, but rather, ArmaLite rifle. An assault rifle is a specific kind of combat rifle meant for service — like, say, an M-16 or AK-47. An assault weapon is a legal term with lots of floating definitions (some meaningful, many not). (Note: I have no interest in discussing the politics of firearms below, as it has little bearing on the discussion. OKAY THANK YOU. *jetpacks away, whoosh*)

• Precision means how tight your grouping when firing at a target — meaning, all hits are scored close together. Accuracy indicates how close those hits were to the intended target. They are not interchangeable. So, if you fired ten rounds at Robo-Hitler, and all ten rounds missed but were in a nice little grouping on that barn wall — hey, precision! If your hits were scattered all over the place and one of them clocked Robo-Hitler in his little cybernetic Hitlerstache, that’s accurate, but not precise. And, ten rounds in the center of Robo-Hitler’s chest is both accurate and precise.

• Many firearms must be “sighted in” for precision and accuracy.

• Nobody turns their guns sideways to fire except dumbshits who like not hitting targets. The sights on top of a gun are there for a reason, as it turns out. IT’S ALMOST LIKE THEY WERE PUT THERE ON PURPOSE. Note: that’s not to say your fiction does not contain dumbshits who do this — it’s just noting that doing this is totally ineffective.

• Most untrained users are neither accurate nor precise with firearms. Particularly if they’ve never held one or used one before. So, that scene where the utterly untrained user picks up a pistol and puts a blooming rose right between the eyes of the assailant 50 yards away — that’s lottery-winner lucky. Now, a shotgun using shotshells — well, you get a spray pattern with those pellets, so that offers a much better chance. (Which is why for an untrained user a shotgun is a smart home defense weapon. Also, a bullet could go through drywall and strike an unintended target — a less likely effect with a shotgun.)

• Bullets are not magically sparky-explodey. They’re not matches. They don’t set fire to things.

• Ragdoll physics are super-hilarious in video games, but someone struck by a bullet does not go launching backward ten feet into a car door. The recoil is largely against the user of the gun, not the recipient of the hot lead injection.

• Actually, an untrained user of a gun might find that recoil particularly difficult to manage at first — a scope might give them a black eye, a pistol might jump out of their hands or (if held too close to the face) might bop their nose. I mean, the reason the butt of a rifle or shotgun is padded is because OW I HAVE A BRUISE NOW.

• Dropped guns do not discharge.

• Hollow-point bullets are meant for damage (“stopping power”) more than penetration — the bullet, upon hitting the tender flesh of the alien, blooms like a metal flower due to that dimple of space in the bullet. It expands, makes a bigger projectile. Which does more internal injury — but doesn’t necessarily penetrate all the way to the other side of the XENOFORM. In theory, this makes the bullets safer (er, “safer”) as they do not pass through and strike other innocent targets. For the alien that just got shot, it is obviously not as, erm, caring. (Hollow point bullets are not really armor-piercing, by the by.) One company does make “Zombie Max” bullets, which is completely fucking ludicrous tying a pop culture phenomenon of fake supernatural entities to actual cartridges, thus enticing children and other goonheads to think HAW HAW HAW ZOMBIE BULLETS WHOA COOL. Zombies are not real, and firearms are not toys.

• Laser guns are rad. PYOO PYOO.

Your turn.

What else?

* * *

The journey to become a successful writer is long, fraught with peril, and filled with difficult questions: How do I write dialogue? How do I build suspense? What should I know about query letters? How do I start? What the hell do I do?

The best way to answer these questions is to ditch your uncertainty and transform yourself into a Kick-Ass Writer. This new book from award-winning author Chuck Wendig combines the best of his eye-opening writing instruction — previously available in e-book form only — with all-new insights into writing and publishing. It’s an explosive broadside of gritty advice that will destroy your fears, clear the path, and help you find your voice, your story, and your audience.

Amazon

B&N

Indiebound

Writer’s Digest

I managed to totally screw things up for myself at the ages of 20, 22, 24, 29, 33, 37, and 40 so I decided to write everything I know about so-called “personal finance”. The words personal finance are a total scam but I’ll save that for another time. Let’s just say, this is about how to build wealth and preserve your wealth. 

The things you need to know. 

The first answer is: nothing. You need to know absolutely nothing about personal finance. Buying a cheap beer versus buying an expensive beer will not help you get rich.

But, that seems cynical. So let me say congratulations first. You’re 20 years old! Yay!

I can’t even really remember 20 years old. I started my first business then. And failed at it. But that’s another story.

When I was 22 I was thrown out of graduate school and then fired from 3 jobs in a row at higher and higher salaries where I saved nothing.

When I was 24 I moved to NYC and began the first of about ten career changes. The first rule of personal finance is that it’s not personal and it’s not financial. It’s about your ability to make ten changes and not get too depressed over it.

During those career changes I made a lot of money. Then lost a lot. Then made a lot. Then lost a lot. Then made a lot more.

I did this so many times I made a study of what was working for me on the way up. And what wasn’t working on the way down.

So I’m not an expert on anything. I just know WHAT HAS WORKED FOR ME to create massive success. I’m admitting it right now. I’m not just a failure.

First off, don’t bother saving money. You get more money in the bank by making more money. That’s rule #1.

People might think this is flippant. What if they can’t make more money. Well, then, you’re going to run out of money. No personal finance rule will help.

Buying coffee on the street instead of in a Starbucks is the poor man’s way to get rich. In other words, you will never get rich by scratching out ten cents from your dollar.

People save 10 cents on a coffee and then….overpay $100,000 for a house and then do reconstruction on it.

Or they save 10 cents on a book and then…buy a college degree that they never use for $200,000.

Now your real education can begin:

A) Don’t save money. Make more. If you think this is not so easy then remember: whatever direction you are walking in, eventually you get there.

B) That said, don’t spend money on the BIGGEST expenses in life. House and college (and kids and marriage but, of course, there are exceptions there). Just saving on these two things alone is worth over a million dollars in your bank account.

C) But doesn’t renting flush money down the toilet? No, it doesn’t. Do the math. You can argue all you want but the math is very clear as long as you are not lying to yourself.

D) Haven’t studies shown that college graduates make more money 20 years later?

No, studies have not shown that. They show correlation but not causation and they don’t take into account multi-collinearity (it could be that the children of middle class families have higher paying jobs later and, oh by the way, these children also go to college).

E) Don’t invest in anything that you can’t directly control every aspect of. In other words…yourself.

In other words:

1. You can’t make or save money from a salary.And salaries have been going down versus inflation for 40 years. So don’t count on a salary. You’re 20, please take this advice alone if you take any advice at all.
2. Investing is a tax on the middle class. There are at least 5 levels of fees stripped out of your hard-earned cash before your money touches an investment.

F) If you want to make money you have to learn the following skills. None of these skills are taught in college.

I’m not saying college is awful or about money, etc. I’m just saying that the only skills needed to make money will never be learned in college:

• how to sell (both in a presentation and via copywriting)
• how to negotiate (which means win-win, not war)
• creativity (take out a pad, write down a list of ideas, every day)
• leadership (give more to others than you expect back for yourself)
• networking (a corollary of leadership)
• how to live by themes instead of goals (goals will break your heart)
• reinvention (which will happen repeatedly throughout a life)
• idea sex (get good at coming up with ideas. Then combine them. Master the intersection)
• the 1% rule (every week try to get better 1% physically, emotionally, mentally)
• “the google rule” – always send people to the best resource, even if it’s a competitor. The benefit to you comes back tenfold
• give constantly to the people in your network. The value of your network increase linearly if you get to know more people but EXPONENTIALLY if the people you know, get to know and help each other.
• how to fail so that a failure turns into a beginning
• simple tools to increase productivity
• how to master a field. You can’t learn this in school with each “field” being regimented into equal 50 minute periods. Mastery begins when formal education ends. Find the topic that sets your heart on fire. Then combust.
• stopping the noise: news, advice books, fees upon fees in almost every area of life. Create your own noise instead of falling in life with the others.

If you do all this you will gradually make more and more money and help more and more people. At least, I’ve seen it happen for me and for others.

I hope this doesn’t sound arrogant. I’ve messed up too much by not following the above advice.

Don’t plagiarize the lives of your parents, your peers, your teachers, your colleagues, your bosses.

Create your own life.

Be the criminal of their rules.

I wish I were you because if you follow the above, then you will most likely end up doing what you love and getting massively rich and helping many others.

I didn’t do that when I was 20. But now, at 46, I’m really grateful I have the chance every day to wake up and improve 1%.